Munavalli Jyoti R, Rao Shyam Vasudeva, Srinivasan Aravind, van Merode G G
Maastricht University Medical Centre, The Netherlands.
Forus Health, India; Maastricht University Medical Centre, The Netherlands.
Health Informatics J. 2020 Mar;26(1):435-448. doi: 10.1177/1460458219832044. Epub 2019 Mar 8.
This study addressed the problem of scheduling walk-in patients in real time. Outpatient clinics encounter uncertainty in patient demand. In addition, the disparate departments are locally (department-centric) organized, leading to prolonged waiting times for patients. The proposed integral patient scheduling model incorporates the status and information of all departments in the outpatient clinic along with all possible pathways to direct patients, on their arrival, to the optimal path. The developed hybrid ant agent algorithm identifies the optimal path to reduce the patient waiting time and cycle time (time from registration to exit). An outpatient clinic in Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai, has a huge volume of walk-in patients and was selected for this study. The simulation study was performed for diverse scenarios followed by implementation study. The results indicate that integral patient scheduling reduced waiting time significantly. The path optimization in real time makes scheduling effective and efficient as it captures the changes in the outpatient clinic instantly.
本研究解决了实时安排无需预约患者就诊的问题。门诊诊所面临患者需求的不确定性。此外，不同科室是按局部（以科室为中心）组织的，导致患者等待时间延长。所提出的整体患者调度模型纳入了门诊诊所所有科室的状态和信息，以及所有可能的路径，以便在患者到达时将其引导至最佳路径。所开发的混合蚁群算法可确定最佳路径，以减少患者等待时间和周转时间（从挂号到离开的时间）。马杜赖阿拉文德眼科医院的一家门诊诊所接待大量无需预约的患者，该诊所被选作本研究对象。针对不同场景进行了模拟研究，随后开展了实施研究。结果表明，整体患者调度显著减少了等待时间。实时路径优化使调度变得有效且高效，因为它能即时捕捉门诊诊所的变化。
